


You Were A Kindness

by ofself



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Light Angst, Past Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 16:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4106806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofself/pseuds/ofself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of her nervous breakdown, Annie Edison knows she wants to turn things around. She just doesn't know how.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Were A Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Heroine Big Bang @ LJ](http://heroinebigbang.livejournal.com/). I always wanted to explore a bit of Annie's life in the months after her episode and before joining Greendale. 
> 
> Title from The National's You Were A Kindness.
> 
> Art by the ever so awesome [mizzy2k](http://mizzy2k.livejournal.com/). :D

Since the _episode_ , this is the first time she’s visited the courthouse.

She moves towards to the Greendale Citizen of the Month wall. Her 7-time winning streak has been broken. There’s now a handsome if somewhat smug face looking out at her from the picture frame. A Jeff Winger.

He has a pointy hair, a big forehead and a smile that though charming is smug.

She’s been away only for a month and already there’s somebody better.

Annie turns away from the wall and wills herself to breathe calmly. _1, 2, 3 breathe. 1, 2, 3 breathe_. She doesn’t have to be the best at everything. She doesn’t. She knows that. But it feels good to know that she is best. Because the comparisons stop then.

The court house is not very far from her apartment. It’s not a place an 18-year old should frequently visit, unless of course you are juvenile delinquent making the transition into an adult delinquent, but Annie has good memories of this place. The people here know her. Janice from reception will always have a cookie waiting for her. Bob the Janitor likes to show her pictures of his cats. She’s not invisible, despite the braces, the back brace or the frizzy hair. It’s not like how it is at school. Or was at school.

Things are going to change. Annie’s going to turn her life around. And if her parents don’t want to support her, well that’s fine. She’ll deal with it.

But she’s only 18. What can an 18-year old do?

-

Annie stands there, so lost in thought that she does not notice that a person has come to stand next to her.

“So I broke your record huh?” Annie’s eyes fly open and she looks up to see this tall handsome man standing next to her. He’s the Jeff Winger from the wall. The guy who broke her streak.

In the photograph, he looked so shiny, so well put together. The guy standing next to her looks haggard and not so shiny.

“Yeah, you did.” She smiles up at him, awkwardly, feeling the metal parts of her braces dig into the tender flesh of her mouth.

“That must have taken some doing, winning it 7 times in a row.”

“I’m a naturally driven person.” She tells him primly. She leaves out the part where she took drugs to be even more driven than usual. He might look haggard but he’s still cute in an older person kind of way.

“Also, there’s kinda no one else who participates. But I’m sure you deserved the award.”

The smile drops from his face.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

Something about him has been niggling her. No, not in the predator kind of way. Annie knows how to take care of herself, thank you very much.  Something about this Jeff Winger’s face feels familiar. She’s sure she’s seen him somewhere.

“You’re the lawyer who faked having a degree!” She bursts out. She’s immediately embarrassed. That must have been so terrible for him. Of course, he shouldn’t have faked his degree but neither did he deserve to be exposed publicly.

It had been such a sensation. For once, Greendale’s news stations had actual news to report. If she remembers rightly, there had been a stripper involved, an angry lady, a recalcitrant husband and a person with a hole in their hand. And of course, a lawyer who was smart and seemed to have it all, only to see it crumble before him.

The man in question dredges up a facsimile of smile. “Yeah, that’s me. Jeff Winger. The lawyer without a law school degree.”

Annie feels his pain. In a way. There’s feeling humiliated and then there’s feeling humiliated in public. Humiliation is not a feeling that goes away, no matter how hard you try. You shove it into the recesses of your brain and hope it stays there, forgotten and alone but it never works. It pops up at the oddest of times and makes you re-live every single agonizing minute of that moment of humiliation.

The night of the party is still so vividly etched out in her memory. She had psyched herself up tremendously for it. She wanted it to go right so badly, that she took more pills than she needed, despite the warning signals in her brains. She felt that without the pills, she would lose her final chance at showing Troy Barnes that she was somebody worth noticing it, somebody worth being with.

The night of the party recurs as a nightmare way too often.  She tries to screw her eyes shut and dream of better things, positive things, but the entire thing plays in a loop, over and over again, the whole nightmare topped off with a soundtrack filled with the mocking laughter of her peers. All that she’s left with in the end is an empty sense of failure and exhaustion.

She pushes down that memory and all the feelings it dredges up and veers back into the present. Jeff Winger looks lost and tired – not unlike how Annie feels. Perhaps he too does not know what to do. How to go back to when things were perfect.

“You can get another degree?” She offers tentatively.

The man sighs.  “I can but–,” suddenly he breaks off and looks at her.

“Never mind. I shouldn’t be dumping all this on you. Shouldn’t you be at school?” He looks at her suspiciously, taking in her buttoned-up sweater set with her trusty purple back pack, which has various badges pinned to it.

“I’m eighteen and I’ve graduated. I’m on my way to college. Or at least I was. I don’t have a scholarship anymore.” Now it’s her turn to sigh. Everything was going so good. She had a scholarship to Yale. _Yale_. But in the end, the very things that helped her, they screwed it all up. Colossally.

He doesn’t ask her why she isn’t on her way to college anymore or why she doesn’t have a scholarship. He just grimaces in sympathy.

“I’m sorry kid. But you’re still young. You’ll do something. You didn’t win an award 7 times for nothing.” He smiles down at her, encouraging.

The kid epithet rankles but Annie feels good. There’s finally someone else other than her who believes that she still do something worthwhile. Or become somebody worthy.

“You can do something too.” She looks at him doubtfully. “You’re not too old.”

The man winces. “Not too old she says. I’ve never felt so ancient until now. And what exactly should I do?”

“Get a degree,” she says decisively. “A real one.” She amends with a stern look.

“My Bubbe always said that if you wanted things badly enough, you’d find a way to make them happen.”

“I think what your Bubbe said would apply to you as well.” He looks at her pointedly. She flushes. That is true. Her Bubbe would want her to not give up. And Annie Edison does not give up. It’s not her first choice, but there is a place that would have her. There is Greendale. Greendale Community College, that is.

“Greendale Community College!” she blurts, once again appalled by her lack of self-control. Longingly she thinks of how one small pill would help. That one small pill would give her poise and confidence.

But no, she’s not going down that road again.

The man blinks at her in confusion.

“Greendale Community College? Isn’t that the college where they have classes that don’t make sense?” He asks skeptically.

“Yeah well, beggars can’t be choosers.” She retorts tartly. “It was my safety college and since no other college is going to have me now, Greendale is where I’m gonna go.”

“You should go there too,” she adds. “Sure it’s not Ivy League, but it’s still a place that will have you.”

“Greendale huh?” He looks like he’s genuinely considering it and Annie feels thrilled. For the first time in a month, she feels like there’s some sense of purpose to her life. That all is not lost. That she’s not lost.

“And you’ll be there?” He looks at her considering.

“I’ll be there.” Annie looks up at him, feeling emboldened. “In fact, if you like, we can go right now and apply.”

“Sounds good to me. “ He smiles down at her, and for the first time in the past half an hour since she met him, his smile resembles the smile in the photograph, happy, with a trace of a smirk.

“I’d introduce myself as Jeff Winger, but you already know about me.”

“I’m Annie. Annie Edison.”

“You want to grab some frozen yogurt first? Before we head to the school?” He – Jeff Winger, formerly hot shot lawyer, looks a trace nervous and Annie is somewhat pleased by it.

“I’d love to!” she answers with a happy grin.

Things are definitely looking up.

He holds out an arm and oh, okay, Annie’s heart beats a little faster. He might be slightly old, but for the first time in a long time, Annie feels like a princess.

She takes his arm, with a pleased smile and they begin walking.

This feels like the start of something momentous. Annie can feel it.


End file.
